What Would it Take for Spider-Man to Appear in The Avengers?

During an interview with IGN, longtime Spider-Man producer and founder of Marvel Studios Avi Arad said he thinks a potential crossover movie will only happen when the studios involved have run out of inspiration.

“I think I’m probably a little bit of the militant here,” said Arad. “I think it will take a moment in which we’ve run out of ideas. There's so much to tell about Spider-Man. There's so much to tell about the Sinister Six. The relationship between Spider-Man and Venom will bring a whole other world in.”

He even drew a parallel with the source material behind the films. “We did it in the books; we did team-ups all the time. Even with DC. You know, we'd flip a coin, 'Okay, who's going to win, Batman or The Hulk? We'll make a cover out of it.'

“But we really feel very confident that we have so much to do […] Peter Parker is unique; he's really different. He's not an Avenger. He's not an X-Man. He's unique and we revere that. And we'd rather work really hard to have the right ideas than – you know in the toy business we used to make toys glow in the dark when they weren't selling well and it gave at least another Christmas. We don't need it yet.”

Arad’s co-producer on The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Matt Tolmach, acknowledged the interest that surrounds the idea of a crossover movie, but he also believes that there is enough within the Spider-Man universe alone to sustain future instalments and that any potential cameo in another series could feel like a "stunt".

“You know Avi always refers to that question as a stunt," he says. "If you were to do that, you know, Spider-Man in the Avengers is a stunt. And I get why everybody – you know, fans and audience members and movie goers – I understand it.

“When you think about the Sinister Six and you think about Venom and you think about Carnage and you think Spider-Man in whatever way you want in association with those movies, they feel like they're built for Spider-Man. Like that's where his story needs to go and wants to go and it has to be about more than a stunt.

“Stunts can be cool but it's also a business, and so the other side of the answer is they're owned by different companies. And there's a ton left in Sony's world; there's a lot of business left because there's a lot of story left. So for them to want to take this character and put it with Marvel and Disney is a huge undertaking and probably, as Avi's saying, isn't necessary until you feel like, 'Wow, we're sort of out of ideas. What should we do?' And we're far from out of ideas.”

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is out in the UK from Wednesday, April 16th and is released globally in the coming weeks. You can read IGN's review right here.

Daniel is IGN's UK Games Editor. He sometimes writes about movies, too. You can be part of the world's most embarrassing cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.